On the morning of December 10th, the first meeting of the Organizing Committee of the 19th Conference on International Exchange of Professionals (CIEP) was held in Shenzhen. At the meeting, the Organizing Committee announced the overview of the 18^th CIEP and the overall work plan of the 19^th CIEP, and introduced and deliberated the composition of the Organizing Committee. Some representatives of cooperative units delivered speeches. Lu Ming, Director of the Organizing Committee and member of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Nie Xinping, Vice mayor of Shenzhen, attended and addressed the meeting, which was presided over by Li Zhuowen, Deputy Secretary General of Shenzhen Municipal Government.

According to the unified arrangement, the 19^th CIEP is scheduled to be held in Shenzhen from April 24 to 25, 2021. This CIEP will thoroughly implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19^th CPC Central Committee and the requirements of the 14^th Five-year Plan, focus on the theme of “innovation, development, cooperation and win-win” to promote the quality and upgrade and build an interconnected, mutually beneficial and win-win international exchange and cooperation platform and an innovation achievements trading platform on the basis of internationalization, specialization, diversification, informatization and marketization, and gather global innovation and human resources. The CIEP will work with all parties to share “China’s opportunities” for scientific and technological progress and innovation development, and build a science and technology innovation community that shares weal and woe.

In his speech, Mr. Lu stressed that 2021 would be a harvest year for the Chinese nation to achieve its first centenary goal, a first year to start a new journey and implement the 14^th Five-year Plan, and the 20^th year of the establishment of the CIEP. Therefore, the success of the CIEP would be of great significance.  He urged that all units should improve their political position awareness, serve the “four orientations”, further clarify the orientation of the conference in the new development pattern and build new comparative advantages. He also required all units to adhere to the innovation drive, constantly open up new resources for international scientific and technological innovation and talent exchange, so as to improve quality and efficiency. Moreover, he pointed out that all units should closely communicate and cooperate with each other and treat guests sincerely and warmly, strengthen supervision and management to improve their ability of risk prevention and control to provide best services for all participants and make the CIEP a fair for international scientific and technological innovation achievements and international talent exchange.

Deputy Mayor Nie Xinping said that in the past 40 years, the key to Shenzhen’s development into an international innovative city full of charm, power, vitality and innovation was that it attracted and gathered a large number of talents at home and abroad. As a high standard and international talent event and an important platform for recruiting talents from all over the country, the annual CIEP plays a very important role in recruiting talents for Shenzhen. As a result, Shenzhen will continue to take its advantages of being adjacent to Hong Kong, Macao and its developed high-tech industries, make good use of scientific and technological means both online and offline, improve the accuracy of talent matching, prevent and control epidemic, and hold a higher-quality and more influential international event for talents, so as to provide stronger support for the implementation of the strategy of strengthening China through talents.

Xia Bing, Deputy Director of China Association for International Exchange of Personnel, summarized the 18^th CIEP, saying that the conference, mainly held in the online form of exhibitions and negotiations as well as versatile theme events with rich content, made positive achievements. As of November 30, the conference received registration of 5,291 units and 59,598 individuals on its official website and related platforms, of which 1,654 enterprises and individuals released 3,185 pieces of information in the project matching function area, 4,619 employers released 29,118 pieces of job information through the recruitment platform of the conference. The conference collected 90,230 resumes and 54,050 applicants registered to apply for the jobs. The website of and related platforms of the conference were clicked more than 9 million times.

Liang Yongsheng, Director of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission, introduced that the 19^th CIEP would be held in a “dual engine” exhibition mode that “lays equal stress on both offline and online forms”. The offline exhibition will set up five parts, including the opening ceremony, Shenzhen forum, exhibition negotiation, talent recruitment and theme activities; the online exhibition will set up virtual exhibition hall, project docking, online recruitment, online service and other functional service areas.

The 19^th CIEP will make full use of its platform and other advantageous resources, introduce innovation and science and technology forces to realize cross space display, cross-border connection and cross-user cooperation, to create a “double helix” service space integrating online and offline services, and provide comprehensive services such as project supply and demand matching, overseas brand promotion, international talent big data analysis and other comprehensive services for governments, enterprises and institutions at all levels, and truly realize a never-end CIEP.

Before the meeting, Lu Ming and his men also made a special trip to Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation Zone for Technology and Innovation and Guangming Science City. They visited Nanshan International Culture Exchange Center, Overseas Personnel Management Service Center of Zhaoshang Street, DJ-Innovations, Shenzhen Employment and Residence Service Center for Foreigners in succession and listened to relevant reports.